Page 6 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
"Well? Are you going to do it?"
"Maybe. Does the spell look difficult?" I tried to read it through myself but Michelle's head was in the way. She was practically crawling into the page. My friend seriously needed glasses.
"You tell me. It says you have to meditate. Once your mind is clear, you make an offering in your silver bowl and a willing spirit will come to you."
"What kind of offering?"
"It doesn't specify."
"As long as it's not blood." I'd learned the hard way that blood, my own, was required to sort a human soul to the afterlife. When I'd put Logan back into his body, I had to slice my arm and bleed into my silver bowl to make his soul "stick." The cut itself healed magically, but the blood loss on top of the mystical effort involved left me exhausted.
"I guess it can be anything that's valuable to you," she said.
I nudged her out of the way and read through the spell myself. "Look, this symbol in the corner means I can do it during the day." I pointed to a yellow circle next to the title.
Michelle nodded and looked at me expectantly.
"It might be nice to have a pet," I said.
"Grateful, this isn't just a pet. This is a familiar, the perfect pet to balance you. It's like petmatch.com but better. This little guy will make you more powerful. Hell, all I've got at home is a pug with flatulence."
"You love Bosco."
She giggled. "He was an impulse buy that grew on me."
I sighed and plopped back into my chair. "I don't know, Michelle, do we have time for this? I really wanted to get more done today."
Tipping her head to the side, my friend folded her arms across her chest. "Really? The pages aren't numbered but this thing has to be five thousand long. We've been at it all month and have barely made a dent."
With attitude, I combed my fingers through my hair and rolled my eyes. "All the more reason to buckle down and get to work."
She jabbed her open hands toward the mammoth book. "Hello? It's going to take us a year to enter all of these spells. It's not like we don't both have full-time jobs. This is like moving a bucket of water with an eyedropper."
"Now you're exaggerating."
She folded her arms across her chest. "What's the rush anyway?"
Crossing the attic, I leaned against the window frame and watched the naked branches of the oak tree in my front yard twist in the late November wind. Less than six weeks until Christmas. I was sure Michelle had better things to do with her day off than enter spells into my database. My chest sank thinking about the burden I'd been to her the last several months. I was the reason she'd been possessed by a vampire, after all.
But I was in a hurry. Besides the danger of Julius's growing coven, and the fact that he probably wanted me dead, Julius said that Rick had lied to me, that I didn't need a Caretaker to regain my power. Julius was a vampire and almost certainly deceiving me. I had no reason to trust him. But ever since he'd said the words, I'd questioned my connection to Rick and the boundaries of my power. In my gut, I had the tiniest needling that Rick was keeping something from me. I'd tried time and time again to put the feeling aside, but it wouldn't leave me alone.
My past incarnation had the wherewithal to name a guardian of my magical attic, Prudence. She'd helped me learn about what I was. Unfortunately, when I accepted my role, Prudence moved on to her eternal reward. With her gone, if I couldn't trust Rick, the only source of power, protection, and information I had was the Book of Light. I was sure all of the answers I needed were within its pages.
I didn't want to trouble Michelle with all the details. She'd done enough to support me already. This was my boat to row. Besides, I was willing to bet obsessing about it was exactly what Julius wanted me to do.
"It could save my life, Michelle. The book weighs hundreds of pounds. This is the only way I can take it with me while I'm learning. I may need one of these spells in an emergency."
"Really?" She leaned across the book. "An eavesdropping bee is going to protect you against a vampire attack on the fly?"
"You've got a point," I mumbled. "But it's still my best hope."
Michelle rubbed her palms together. "I'm not saying the database isn't important, but it isn't everything. It's going to take time. No matter what you do, you're going to have to learn how to use this magic. There are no shortcuts."
I sighed. "You're right. This is just the workaholic in me coming out."
"Exactly. It will all get done eventually. A little a day and by the time you're thirty, you'll be done." With one arm, she hugged my shoulders playfully.
I suddenly felt compelled to entertain her. She'd earned it. "You wanna watch me summon a familiar, or what?"
